Chương 39: Loose Ends
After some preliminary questioning by the marquess, Olivia was taken out of the tent, she would not be taken back to the rest of the prisoners but rather have her own solitary "prison" to call home for now.
This was not done because she was a woman but rather because she was a valuable source of information and therefore precautions must be taken to ensure that nothing would happen to her... for now.
"So this mysterious man that they called Night was the one linking the real culprit to these bandits. As we thought father, this is a much bigger event than it appeared to be on the outside." William exclaimed once the Blackwells were alone in the tent.
"Indeed, I had hoped that it was just our mild imaginations, but unfortunately the evidence is just too clear to deny it. Just the armors and weapons that these bandits had were enough to prove this point. We need to get to the bottom of this." the marquess commented.
Seeing this, Marek felt a bit left out, he was never good at the political maneuvering aspect of being a member of the higher nobility. Yet seeing that his younger brother was able to follow as well as contribute to the conversation made him feel very uncomfortable.
Once Olivia was taken away, William saw no need to stay and therefore excused himself. He wanted to take a stroll around the area, getting some fresh air and replaying what had happened today in his head.
He did so to try to learn from it and also see if there was something to improve upon. The strategy overall was sound, his father had taken care of the details since he knew the topography much better than William, the idea behind it was good as well.
Taking care of all their opponents at once and potentially getting some insight into who is the real person behind all of this was certainly worth the cost of a few men, cold as it may be.
The fact that one of the leaders had slipped through though, indicates that there is much to be improved upon. They should have thought about covering all potential escape routes especially those they used themselves to flip the situation around.
William walked on almost aimlessly, deeply absorbed in his thought process. By the time he came back to his senses, he found that he had walked towards a very small hill on the outskirts of the camp.
They had encamped just outside the southern entrance of the pass, though it was almost dark when they did, he still remembered that there was no hill next to their camp, plus the smell was not that pleasant.
Because it was dark and the area was not lit by torches, William could not quite clearly see the hill, rather just its overall contours.
He drew closer to it to get a clearer view which was not easy to do given that it was still dark until he was just a few steps away from its base. At that very moment, as if on queue, a few clouds that had been obscuring the moonlight parted ways slightly, just enough to allow a sliver of light to illuminate the surroundings.
Finally getting a good glimpse at what was in front of him, William's complexion became deathly pale as he turned around and pucked all that was in his stomach, be it the "hearty" breakfast he had this morning or his recently consumed dinner.
"What the fuck!!!!" William exclaimed after getting a moment to breathe, he reflexively looked at it again, which prompted him to once more expulse the content of his already quite empty stomach once more.
After a few minutes of what could be described as an "unpleasant experience", William finally got a chance to catch his breath once more this time making sure to not gaze at the messed up scene in front of him.
The small "Hill" in front of him was not made of dirt or rocks, rather it was made of bodies, many many bodies. Far more than William had ever seen or would like to ever experience in his life.
He knew that they killed about fifty bandits this afternoon; he was there when the report was made for god's sake. He just did not think that they would just pile them up like this and leave them to fester.
"What the actual fuck is this? I know that the men were probably quite busy taking care of our injured and dead as well as securing the prisoners, but seriously could they not have at least dug them a mass grave?"
William was NOT okay with this at all, he understood the necessity of pragmatism and the need to forgo some comment decency in the face of urgency. Yet one thing he at least believed he would make an exception of would be taking care of the dead.
It was not really out of a sense of morality, well, at least most of the reason was not. It was mostly because the only thing that separates these lifeless corpses from becoming biological weapons of mass destruction was simply time.
"God damn it!!! what are we the Mongols? We might as well wait a few days, strap these corpses to catapults and shoot them into enemy settlements." he cursed.
All of a sudden and in the middle of his ramblings, William felt like something was watching him, he tried to look around to see if he could spot anything but to no avail.
In the dark and with the little light coming from the sun rays reflecting off of the moon, combined with the "graveyard" next to him. All of this gave off a creepy feeling where every corner seemed to hide a shadowy figure.
After a few minutes spent in futility, he decided to leave since he did not want to stay any longer near this death Hill of their own making.
As William walked away, a pair of eyes became visible for a brief period of time, staring at his back without moving or blinking, like a predator looking at its victim.
William stopped and turned around one more time.
"Weird, I just got that feeling again, like something is staring at me. Ahh, whatever, it's probably my imagination going wild, plus this place is creepy as hell."
Try as he may, he could not find anything amiss.
"There you are!!!"
William almost jumped out of his very boots, cartoon character style by the sudden intrusion. He felt his heart beating strongly as he turned around just to find Marek staring at him with a cheeky smile plastered on his face.
"Yeah Yeah have your moment of triumph, good job enjoy all fifteen seconds of it" William grumbled at his brother before adding in his mind. "I bet that how long you last in bed."
"You bet I will brother, come on now let's go back, you disappeared into thin air and I had to go looking for you or suffer father's rants, and next time at least carry a torch with you instead of silently disappearing into the night"
William went ahead and followed Marek back to the camp, leaving the night to blanket all the surroundings with its dark cold embrace.
---------------------------------------------
Back at the camp, The marquess's tent.
Lord Ulric was receiving another report from Osiwn about their pursuit of the third leader that had slipped through their trap.
"My lord." Oswin saluted.
"Just spit it out already Oswin, or do you wish to torture me with the suspense."
"The team that had gone outside the canyon just came back, they had found no traces of the suspected escapee."
Lord Ulric sighed a bit disappointed before asking. " What about the cliffs?"
Oswin hesitated as if being unsure of what he was about to say.
"We found some traces that could have been left by our target, though it is very hard to be absolutely sure since its night time and the visibility is low."
Hearing this, Lord Ulric slammed his head into the table as he stood. "We have no time Oswin, we also only have one lead, so I want you to rotate the men and send them up to look for any trace they could find, I know it has been a long day but we can't wait, as we speak the enemy is getting further away from us."
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